1

Albuquerque American Culture Association, March 2001

French Perspectives
on Mexican Secret Societies
David Merchant
University of the Americas-Puebla
Paul Rich
Hoover Institution, Stanford University
University of the Americas-Puebla

(Square and Compass on Screen.) The uniting theme of the panel this
afternoon is fresh research, which for all of us has meant extensive travel.
During 2000, on sabbatical leave, we (David Merchant and Paul Rich) had
the opportunity to spend time in Paris getting first hand knowledge of
Freemasonry in France. The experience was humbling, because the scope of
the resources and scholarship encountered were far more than anticipated,
and indeed were so overwhelming that it is possible to say that any study of
secret societies is inadequate without a thorough examination of what
French researchers have been uncovering and of the French libraries. For
example, we have long looked for but not found significant nineteenthcentury records of Mexican lodges, but in the Masonic archives in Paris we
found the voluminous records of three nineteenth-century Mexican lodges,
evidentially unstudied since the years when they were accumulated by
secretaries of the grand or national lodges in Paris more than 150 years ago.1
(Bones and altar on screen.)
Moreover, the experience served to underscore a comment made by
Professor David Damrosch of Columbia University about the death of Latin
in academic discourse and the rise of nationalism:

having made the nationalistic move of switching to the vernacular,

universities and their faculty could hardly conduct all their scholarly
business in foreign languages, and soon inevitably an increasing amount of
scholarshipbegan to be written in languages accessible only to foreign
nationals. Even today only a small proportion of scholarly writing is ever
translated into other languagesin practice a new parochialism has
emerged, in which untranslated foreign scholarship is relegated to the back
burner, either ignored outright or at best surveyed less thoroughly and less
thoughtfully than what is available in ones native tongue.2
The history of secret and ritualistic organizations is complicated not
only by language (acetate of Masonic jargon) but by the fact the subject has
never received the attention from mainstream scholars that we think it
deserves, quite possibly because of the major bibliographical problems such
as limited private publication that are presented even at a national level.
The subject really deserves but seldom gets a global perspective. (acetate of
civil society globally) Remarks Michel Brodsky, The level of research
within the Craft is low, and mostly concerns the local history of lodges or
remembrance of folk heroes.3
The calibre of research by non Masons is often little better than that
by Masons. One explanation of course as to why general histories give scant
attention to societies such as Masonry is a partial misperception that they do
not present an open door to inquisitive non-members. This is a stumbling
block because few public or university libraries take seriously the collecting
of material on the Masons, so the serious researcher must get permission to
use Masonic archives. That would appear to be easier said than done as the
secrecy of such groups seems their stock in trade, but our own experience is
that this is an obstacle which is often overrated. Gaining access is not
always as hard as it may seem; in Paris we were warmly welcomed by the
libraries of both the Grand Orient and the Grand Lodge.4
Although the subject of Freemasonry seems esoteric, considering how
widespread it and similar movements are,5 there is a strong case that social
scientists should give more attention to this aspect of popular and
international culture. It is a vast topic and there is most assuredly not one
Masonic movement but rather a number of Masonic movements which often
are at cross-purposes with each other. The Masonry of England, closely tied

to the aristocracy and royal house and Anglican church, is not the Masonry
of Chiapas. These distinctions give a lot of trouble, whether between
countries or between rites. For example, Robert Putnam of Bowling Alone
fame has never really seen that since all Shriners are Masons, that treating
the Masons and Shriners separately befuddles his conclusions.6
Our view prior to our visit that the only important work in the field
was being done in centers such as London was swept away; quite clearly
and without dispute, Paris is the center of current research into Freemasonry
and similar groups, and we understand from Guillermo De Los Reyes, our
fellow panelist today, that Spain is also an increasingly strong entrant. The
purpose of this paper is to give some background as to why the French have
the right to have an outlook on a subject which is often thought,
erroneously, to be largely British in its early history7 and why a knowledge
of French Freemasonry is relevant to understanding the history of secret
societies in Mexico. Once one moves away from a preoccupation with
British Masonry, consideration of the French influence makes sense: after
all, the Templar legends which are part of Masonic folklore are firmly tied
to the martydom of Jacques de Molay in Paris.8
One similarity that is immediately apparent is that French
Freemasonry is no less controversial and prominent than Freemasonry
elsewhere. David Merchant will give a little glimpse of this by using some
startling illustrations from one French Masonic pamphlet we acquired on
our visit.
Contributing to the lack of knowledge about French scholarship on
Freemasonry is the fact that since the 1870s the United Grand Lodge of
England has refused to recognize most of the institutions of French
Masonry, claiming that the French Masons rejected the landmarks of the
fraternity such as a belief in God. The English will not recognize any
foreign grand lodge which recognizes the French bodies. So most French
Masonic lodges are supposedly off limits to Masonic visitors from the
United States or from the British Commonwealth. In contrast, the Grand
Orient and the Grand Lodge of France welcome anyone who belongs to a
Masonic lodge, basing their hospitality on the trust that such a lodge is
genuinely Masonic if it says it is.

So one either goes to Paris suspecting the French as libertines or

reciprocating the trust. That has a resemblance to the Mexican situation,
where many of the Mexican lodges are not recognized overseas but which
are quite glad to receive overseas visitors. We indeed found that there are a
number of competing grand lodges in Paris, each with its archives and
ethos. The French newspaper Le Monde has this to say about the fraternity:
Freemasonry is known for being multifarious, divided even, and
perhaps more so in France than elsewhere. The clearest division is between
the Grand Orient and the other lodges. Unlike the other rites, the Grand
Orient does not invoke the Great Architect of the Universe, that is to say
God, in its constitution and its members do not sear on the Bible. The Grand
Lodge of France and the French Grand National Lodge both recognize the
Great Architect, but the latter is the only one to be recognized by the
United Lodge of England, the [self-assumed] parent chapter of the order
worldwide.9
In any event, the need to look at French scholarship applies to the
study of secret societies in Mexico just as much as it does to similar studies
of the secret societies of other countries, and the exclusion of France from
the dialogue is ridiculous. We had the pleasure of spending time with Pierre
Mollier, who is the Librarian of the Grand Orient of France, one of the
principle national Masonic organizations. In an address at the Canonbury
Masonic Research Centre in London he made a number of comments about
the influence of French Freemasonry, pointing out that much of continental
Europe received Freemasonry from France. So Spain, for example, and thus
pace Mexico, has far more early Masonic ties with France in his opinion
than with England. Mollier asserted that, Latin American Freemasonry
could not be understood without taking into account the strong French
influence in the 19th century. 10 One only needs to reflect on the personal
ties of Mexicans with France to see the truth in this statement -- Lorenzo de
Zavala, instrumental in founding York lodges (though disgraced for
revealing ritual secrets) and sometime Mexican minister to France, is a
name that comes immediately to mind.11
This is not to claim that all French studies of Masonry sparkle: the
need for a fresh approach was as much evident in Paris as elsewhere,
although the French seem to be doing more about it. Just as Masonic studies
in the English-speaking world rely on a few overused authorities such as

Gould, Mackay and Coil, Mollier points out that The classical
historiography of French Freemasonry relies on three names: Thory, Ragon
and Claveleven if we know today that their books are quite unreliable,
historically speaking! Thory published in 1812 Histoire de la Fondation du
Grand Orient de France and in 1815 Acta Latomorum. Clavel is the author
of Histoire Pittoresque de la Franc-maonnerie published in 1843, and
Ragon wrote in 1853 the Ortodoxie Maonnique. 12 (Acetates by David
Merchant.)
Not only did individual Mexican and French Masons spend time in
each others countries, but Mexico has very particular ties with France
because of the prevalence of the so-called Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
there. (Ladder of the Scottish and York Rites on screen.) The rite is not
Scottish in origin, and indeed could much more appropriately be called the
French Rite. The designation of the system as Scottish may have originated
in an oration by Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686? - 1743), a mysterious and
controversial Roman Catholic and Jacobite (but holder of an honorary
degree from Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal Society) who was tutor to the
eldest son of James Stuart, the Old Pretender. In an oration he supposedly
gave to the Grand Lodge of France in 1737 and whether he actually
delivered it or whether it was simply written by him and circulated is
controversial he claimed that Scotland was where the splendor of
Masonry was preserved:
This Oration introduced [or at least gave public currency] to the ideas
that led to the development of the higher Degrees of Freemasonry, or
Scottish Masonry. By the turn of the [18th] century, Scottish Freemasonry
had superseded the original English Craft Masonry and had spread all over
Europe and to America. Where English Masonry was based on an apolitical
and tolerant doctrine, this new Scottish Masonry was founded on mystical
speculations and complex connections with antiquity, primarily the
traditional Crusader and Templar legends. The rapid acceptance of higher
Grades outside England reflects social and political differences between
eighteenth century England and Europe. Where the English system was
democratic, the European systems were more totalitarian. In many ways
these new Rites within Scottish Masonry provided an escape from the
tyranny of oppressive governments and the powerful Catholic Church.13
An official of the Scottish Rite offered a slightly different version of

the founding period, writing that:

we know now that a confluence of tributary streams flowed into a
reservoir at Bordeaux, France. This developed into regular units there
known as the Rite of Perfection that Stephen (Etienne) Morin was
empowered in 1761 to bring into the Western Hemisphere. The label of
Ecossais (Scottish)
put upon these developments did not refer to Scotland but gave them the
status of an established brand. Through Morins first appointment about
1765 in the West Indies of Henry Andrew Francken as Deputy Grand
Inspector-General, and the successive descendant appointments, there
finally was established at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1801 the first
Thirty-third Degree Supreme Council for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
Rite of Freemasonry. 14
Morin was a wine merchant who was a founder of the Lodge La
Parfaite Harmonie at Bordeaux in 1743, and master of the lodge in 1744.
Perfect Harmony fostered a multiplicity of degrees calculated to satisfy the
desires of the most insatiable Mason.15 He was subsequently in the spirits
business at Jacmel in San Domingo: hence one reason for his Bordeaux
connections, and for his travels.16 Morin was also a traveling representative
for the Sevres porcelain factories.17
In 1761, he obtained from the Grand Lodge and Sovereign Council of
Masons at Paris appointment for life as Grand Inspector in the Western
Hemisphere for all degrees above the fourteenth. French manuscripts prove
that since about 1740 Bordeaux was the mother and controller of these socalled Scottish Degrees and had warranted daughter organizations under
various regulations. These descendants included the following: Paris 1747;
Cap, San Domingo 1748; St. Pierre, San Domingo 1750; Port La Paix, San
Domingo 1752; St. Marc, San Domingo 1753; Les Cayes de Fond; Isle a
Vaches, San Domingo 1757; Periguex, France 1759; New Orleans, U.S.A.
1763 (pursuiant to request of 1756). Morin was active in San Domingo
Masonry during the 1750s, when Freemasonry on the entire island of
Hispaniola was under French control. It is difficult to separate the early
Masonic history for what is now the Dominican Republic from that of Haiti.
The entire island of Hispaniola was Spanish until 1697 when the western
portion was ceded to France. The Grand Orient of France soon chartered
lodges in what was now Haiti but seems to have asserted jurisdiction over

the entire island until the French Revolution, when Haiti and Dominica
after struggles became independent of colonial control.18
Morins exact travels during these years remain a mystery, although
once in San Dominque, he probably had his Patent or letters of authority
endorsed by every Lodge he visited. So copies of the French version of this
document may exist that have not yet come to light.19 What is known is that
on his first attempt to return to the West Indies in 1762, his ship was
captured by the British and he was taken to England. There he met with
Lord Ferrers, Grand Master of the Modern Grand Lodge of England. At the
time there was a schism in English Masonry and there were two grand
lodges, the Antients, who were actually the newest group, and the Moderns,
who were actually the old original group. Morin claimed that Lord Ferrers
endorsed his control for the Western Hemisphere of the first fourteen
degrees as well. Morin may have had doubts whether this appointment was
valid outside of French territories, but his stay in England gave him a
chance to acquire some claim to authority for the English West Indies. He
also spent time in Scotland, where he may have visited Masons among the
French prisoners of war who were held in Edinburgh Castle and then met as
well with prominent Scottish Masons.
In 1763, finally on his way back to San Domingo, Morin appointed as
his Senior Deputy Inspector for Jamaica a Jamaican government official
named Henry Andrew Francken, who translated Morins ritual, which was
in French, into English, and introduced the first twenty-five of the degrees
into mainland North America. The first minute book of this lodge is now in
the archives of the Northern Supreme Council at Lexington, Massachusetts.
So is a handwritten three-hundred page book by him with the rituals of the
sixth through the twenty-fifth degrees. The Albany lodge still exists.
Meanwhile, back in San Domingo, Morin started another lodge and
continued to
seek candidates for the Scottish Rite higher degrees. Our knowledge of
Mexican Freemasonry in the eighteenth century is so limited that any
activities of Morin take on immense interest did he ever visit Mexico or
did he commission anyone to visit Mexico? We simply do not know, and
the answrs probably are in France.
His influence was wide and unchecked because the Deputy Inspectors
who owed their authority to him began to give more degrees than the

twenty-five over which he originally had claimed jurisdiction. Although

Masonic historians understandably do not dwell on the point, the fact is that
the proliferation of degrees had an economic motivation since money
changed hands for each and every advancement.
Henry Clausen is quite explicit about Morins death in 1771 in
Jamaica and in fact went there to confirm that Morin was interred on
November 17, 1771 at Kingston, Jamaica, in the Anglican Parish Church or
burial yard.20 Others, apparently in error, have claimed he lived on and died
in San Domingo during the first Slave Rising in 1791.21
In summary, the life of Morin demonstrates how important French
influence was on Freemasonry in the Hispanic world of the eighteenth
century, and one can venture that he had the most knowledge of anyone of
his time in the Western Hemisphere of the Scottish System -- that to him
goes the distinction of bringing it to the New World. But as the historian
A.C.F. Jackson and others have speculated, what his motives were remains
an enigma.22
Perhaps he was just a mercenary seller of degrees, but most
significant is that he was fully a father of modern Freemasonry in the same
way that Thomas Dunkerley and Albert Pike were, that is to say that he
helped shape and diffuse the degree systems that were to become so
successful and global at a later date. If anyone wants a starting point for
finding out more about early Mexican Masonry, Morin is a good bet. Pierre
Mollier has gone deservedly unchallenged when he asserts that, All the
documents on the higher degrees before 1760-70 are French, even the first
rituals of Royal Arch degrees, for instance. He also remarks, the oldest
Knight Templars rituals in Britain are the Sheffield rituals circa 1790. in
France the oldest ritual, recently discovered, dates 1750 and there are tens
of manuscript copies dating before the 1790s.23
But there are many other French aspects of Freemasonry which
anyone acquainted with Mexican Freemasonry immediately notices. One is
the acceptance by the French of womens Freemasonry, regarded with
horror in the United States. The so-called adoptive rite (acetate of the
Eastern Star) has less appeal in France than does Freemasonry itself,
although ironically most accounts of the Order of the Eastern Star and other
adoptive rites credit them with a French origin. Another aspect of French

practice is the use of the zodiac, which is common in Mexican lodges and
almost unknown in the United States. When one visits France, this repeated
use of the zodiac is immediately apparent:
English Masonry did indeed make use of astrological symbolism, but
it was employed in a bland way, often without explanationIn contrast,
hundreds of zodiacs and planetary sequences have survived from French
Masonic sources. To judge from such images, the French were far more
inclined than the English to incorporate astrological imagery into their rites
and Lodge decorations24
A telling phrase of Mollier perhaps summarizes the state of research
into secret societies everywhere, particularly those movements related to
Freemasonry and including those in Mexico the need to take Masonic
history out of the Masonic ghetto. He remarks in this regard that it is
quite peculiar that the two most important historians of French Masonry
in the late twentieth century were not Masons, Pierre Chevallier and Alain
Le Bihan. Arguably the two most important historians working in English in
the late twentieth century were (and are) Margaret Jacob and David
Stevenson, neither of them being Masons. Quite possibly Masonic authors,
a phrase Mollier prefers to the more complimentary Masonic historian, with
a few exceptions, have been in that ghetto and not able to make the
contributions that those who are more removed and hence more objective
have been able to make. Certainly our adventures in Paris made us much
more aware of the depth of the subject and of how little is really known
about it.
Thank you.

Two of these lodge caches are in the archives of the Grand Orient, and
one is in the archives of the Grand Lodge. We plan to visit again for the
purpose of thoroughly studying them.
2

David Damrosch, We Scholars: Changing the Culture of the University,

Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts), 1995, 23.

10

Michel Brodsky, Breaking the Ring, privately circulated advance copy

of lecture to Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, 10 November 1994, 3.
4

On the other hand, even Masons could get a cold greeting: In 1934 J.Ray
Shute, then Secretary of the North Carolina Lodge of Research and Grand
Master of the Cryptic Rite, visited the office of Quatuor Coronati Lodge [in
London] in the company of William Moseley Brown, Grand Master of
Virginia, expecting a cordial welcome from its distinguished Secretary,
William J. Songhurst. Alas and alack, such was not the case. He was
pompous and, to us at least, arrogant. In fact, Bill lost his temper when he
presented his card as Grand Master and requested to visit Grand Lodge
headquarters and was rebuffed. R.A.Gilbert, To See Ourselves as Others
See Us, privately circulated copy of paper delivered before Quatuor
Coronati Lodge, London, n.d., 4.
5

More significant still was the way in which masonic practice conditioned
the way in which later associations and confraternities behaved. Ronald
Hutton, Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Bengt Ankarloo and Stuart Clark eds.,
Witchcraft and Magic in Europe: The Twentieth Century, University of
Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1999, 5.
6

Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American

Community, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2000., 94. Since the Shrine
can only recruit Masons, of course if the Masonic membership declines then
the Shrine declines. A further example of Putnams troubles is the Eastern
Star, which has male members. Putnam excludes female members from his
male organization statistics, but not males from what he terms female
organizations such as the Star. The Putnam thesis about the decline in civic
life in America rests so heavily on organizations like the Masons, Grange,
Moose, and like groups, that these distinctions are not unimportant. See paul
Rich, American voluntarism, Social Capital, and political Culture, The
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol.565,
September 199, 15-34.
7

American writers about Freemasonry, as far as we know, almost never cite

French sources. The omission after what we saw on our trip to Paris is quite
extraordinary.

11

See e.g. Tim Wallace-Murphy and Marilyn Hopkins, Rosslyn: Guardian

of the Secrets of the Holy Grail, Element, Boston, 2000, 104 ff.
9

Claude Wauthier, Africas Freemasons: A Strange Inheritance, Le

Mondr Diplomatique, September 1997, at www.mondediplomatique.fr/en/1997/09/masons
10

Pierre Mollier French Masonic history and its historiography,

Transcript of the public lecture, 9 June 1999, Canonbury Masonic
Research Centre, at www.canonbury.ac.uk/library/lectures/pierre.htm
11

In 1833 he was sent to France as minister, but later returned to Texas

where he owned extensive property. When the province rose in rebellion
against Mexico, Zavala joined the insurgents, proclaiming the
reestablishment of the Federal constitution of 1824, and was sent as a
deputy for Harrisburg to the convention of Austin, which on Nov.7, 1835
declared war....He was first master of La Independencia Lodge (location
unidentified), a Royal Arch Mason and a 33 ASSR [Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite]. William R. Denslow, 10,000 Famous Freemasons, Vol.IV,
Macoy Publishing, Richmond (Virginia), 1958, 362.
12

Mollier, op.cit.

13

Lisa Kahler, Andrew Michael Ramsay and his Masonic Oration,

Heredom: The Transactions of The Scottish Rite Research Society, Vol.1,
1992, 40-41. Cf. Cyril N. Batham, Ramsays Oration: the Epernay and
Grand Lodge Versions, Heredom: The Transactions of The Scottish Rite
Research Society, Vol.1, 1992, 49-59.
14

Henry C. Clausen, Clausens Commentaries on Morals and Dogma,

Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry,
Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., Washington, 1974.

15

George Adelbert Newbury and Louis Lenway Williams, A History of The

Supreme Council of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for
the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America,
Supreme Council, Lexington (Massachusetts), 1987, 34, quoting James

12

Fairbairn Smith, The Rise of the Ecossais Degrees, Chapter of Research

R.A.M., Dayton (Ohio), 1965, n.p.
16

Newbury and Williams, op.cit., 35.

17

. Clausen, op.cit., 11. He also used his travels to distribute a French

religious paper, Nouvelles Ecclesiastiques, Newbury and Williams, op.cit.,
35.
18

K.W.Henderson, Masonic World Guide, Lewis Masonic, London, 1984.

19

Jean-Pierre Lassalle, From the Constitutions

and Regulations of 1762 to the Grand Constitution of 1786, Heredom: The
Transactions of the Scottish Rite Research Society, Vol.2, 1993, 58.
20

Clausen, op.cit., 12.

21

Lassalle, From the Constitutions and Regulations, op.cit., 58, citing a

mimeographed booklet by F.W. Seal Coon, An Historical Account of
Jamaican Freemasonry, n.d. or page.
22

See Alain Bergheim, Notes on Early Freemasonry in

Bordeaux (1732-1769), Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol.101, 1988,
October 1989, 37.
23
24

Mollier, op.cit.

David Ovason, The Secret Architecture of Our Nations Capital: The

Masons and the Building of Washington, D.C., HarperCollins, New York,
2000, 94.